The Palestinian Foreign Ministry announced today that the Byzantine Monastery of St. Hilarion – which extends over an area of two hectares (20,000 square metres) in Tel Umm Amer in the southern Gaza Strip – was included on the UNESCO list of enhanced protection.
This came in the special meeting of the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and Occupation (The Hague Convention of 1954), which deals with the protection of cultural heritage and antiquities from damage, destruction, and all forms of misappropriation.
In 1993, the site, which had been open to the public for a few years, was discovered and took its name from a hermit monk who lived in the fourth century AD in Gaza. It includes a hall and bathrooms in addition to 4 overlapping churches. The occupation authorities – who controlled the Gaza Strip before 2005 – looted and stole the pieces. Archaeological evidence from the site, according to the Palestinian News Agency (Wafa).
The site of the Monastery of Saint Hilarion includes the ruins of two churches, a burial place, baptismal and dining halls, sanitary facilities and water tanks, in addition to floors made of limestone and colored mosaics decorated with various drawings and engravings and marble tiles, as well as large steam baths and a fountain, in addition to the Dimas (underground room), the chapel and rooms. Monks and waterwheels.
The Foreign Ministry stressed – in a statement on Thursday – that heritage and cultural sites, schools, universities, educational institutions, and other objects should not be targeted, bombed, or destroyed by the Israeli occupation forces, and that there is a necessity to protect cultural property, heritage, and civilization of peoples from the dangers of war.
She stressed that the enhanced protection of cultural property must prevent the occupying state from attacking the cultural property or harming it in any way, under penalty of criminal liability before the national and international judiciary. The use of cultural property covered by enhanced protection as military targets is a grave violation of the provisions of the Second Protocol to the Hague Convention and is considered a violation of the provisions of the Second Protocol to the Hague Convention. A war crime and entails criminal liability.
The Ministry affirmed that it will do everything necessary, and use all international platforms, in order to protect the Palestinian people and their capabilities, and to hold accountable everyone who violates their rights, whether long or short, including stopping the current aggression and the crimes of the occupation.
Traces of Gaza in the midst of war
Mosques, churches, historical buildings, educational and cultural institutions, and heritage sites were severely damaged during the current Israeli war on Gaza.
Observers believe that through this targeting, Israel seeks to “smash the cultural awareness” of the Palestinian people and sever the connection between them and their heritage and history.
In a previous interview with Tel Aviv Tribune Net, the official spokesman for the Gaza municipality, Hosni Muhanna, touched on the most important sites targeted by the Israeli war machine. He said, “Israel deliberately targets historical monuments and symbols of the Palestinian people for the purpose of continuing its series of crimes against children, civilians, and civilian facilities.”
Palestine has enjoyed full membership in the United Nations Educational and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since 2011.
The Hague Convention of 1954 was a response to the destruction caused by World War II to human heritage sites, and both sides of the war destroyed several cultural treasures.
The agreement expressed the international community’s desire to spare the world’s cultural heritage the scourge of war, and the recognition that the loss of this heritage represents a loss for the targeted country as well as humanity.